We haven’t done one of these in a while! December is usually a miserable hole in the calendar as far as fun stuff for broke folks goes — we can thank a combination of cold weather, final exams and the ever looming shadow of Santa Claus for that. But! You’ve got real options this time! Honest! Here’s your weekend at a glance:

Friday

Crave at Tavern, 10 p.m.
Our bud Steve Cross is DJing at fancypants M Street pub Tavern, which you can find in Midtown, down the road from the desiccated corpse of The Great Escape. WE MISS YOU, GREAT ESCAPE. It’s a big ol’ dance party for fans of electronic music. If you like M83, LCD Soundsystem or any of the dozen or so bands they name drop in the Facebook event, perhaps this is the place for you.They Live at The Belcourt, 12 a.m.
We’re not going to mince words here: if you don’t see They Live tonight or tomorrow at The Belcourt, you don’t deserve to have such a fine movie house in your lives. They Live, this weekend’s midnight movie feature, is John Carpenter’s amazing takedown on the ubiquitous nature of advertising and corporate control. As local film genius and newspaper editor Jim Ridley says, Carpenter “made an Occupy Wall Street (or Nashville) movie 23 years ahead of schedule.” Right on! It’s also the inspiration for artist Shepherd Fairey, if you’re into that sort of thing.

Saturday

Frazey Ford & Trish Klein at Grimey’s, 3 p.m.
We don’t know anything about these cats, but that’s why we have the Grimey’s newsletter to tell us what’s up. In any case, you can get a beer from behind the counter if you’re of age:

In-store performance by two-thirds of Vancouver’s Be Good Tanyas. Frazey and Trish are touring behind Ford’s debut solo LP “Obadiah”, about which Pitchfork had to say, “Even without her harmonizing Tanyas, Ford proves a sure presence through Obadiah, inhabiting these songs comfortably and conveying smirking sass as naturally as simmering lust or downhearted regret. “I can’t think, I can’t use my brain,” she sings on “I Like You Better”, “I can’t think no more.” It’s the album’s catchiest hook and a telling moment not only because she exudes such romantic abandon, but because Ford actually sounds like she singing without thinking.” The album is a wonderful mix of soft jazz, smoky soul, and austere country.

Grand Opening Party at Porter Road Butcher, 3 p.m. to 7 p.m.We don’t know the deets on this, but Porter Road Butcher — the butcher shop that was supposed to open on Porter Road (hence the name) but is now located on the corner of Gallatin and Calvin next to The Groove in East Nashville — is finally opening up after a month of “soft opening” dates. We’re mostly stoked because it means we can finally get good cuts of pork and chicken without having to truck all the way over to the damn Whole Foods in Satan’s Hallow Green Hills. But, more than that, they’re offering free food and beer. Do you really need to know more than that?

Jonathan Toubin Benefit at Foobar, 8 p.m.This is a bit pricier than we usually get at $10, but it’s for a good cause. In case you haven’t heard, righteous DJ extraordinaire (and Booze Cruise participant) Jonathan Toubin was involved in a freak car accident earlier this morning, in which a taxi driver lost control of her car and crashed into his hotel room in Portland. It sounds, for lack of a better phrase, utterly fucking awful. Some of Toubin’s friends and admirers are DJing (and possibly performing, we’re not entirely clear) at Foobar and raising money for his medical expenses, including Turbo Fruits, The Ettes, Nikki Lane, Reno Bo and D. Watusi. There will be giveaways and you’ll have the knowledge that you’re helping out a dude who is, by all accounts, pretty rad.

Santa Rampage at Beer Sellar, 8 p.m. to question marks
An annual tradition, the Santa Rampage is an excuse to dress up like Santa and get trashed at every bar between downtown and East Nashville. Technically speaking, the Santa Rampage is an anarchistic event where you can begin and end wherever you damn well please but there are a couple of suggested routes. If you want to meet up with the bulk of the Santas, you’re going to want to start at Beer Sellar in downtown at 8 p.m. Or, if you don’t want to wind up touring every shitty bar on 2nd Avenue, maybe you can start your own rampage in Green Hills or Five Points or at Betty’s in West Nashville. It’s all up to you! But, real talk, if you want to find us, we may or may not embed ourselves in the big group. The only requirement is that you dress in holiday garb. More details to come.